Fox News Helps Legitimize Georgia Birther Hearing

If Atlanta’s Fox Five News reporter Chris Shaw thought that painting crackpot birther Orly Taitz as a legitimate lawsuit plaintiff would get him noticed at GOP News HQ, aka Fox News, he did a fine job on Friday (1/27/12). Shaw’s biased, unbalanced reporting about a hearing in one of Taitz' numerous lawsuits earned him a place on FoxNews.com’s “Featured Videos.” Check out all the subtle but unmistakable cues that Shaw used to impart credibility to the widely discredited Taitz and cast doubt on President Obama’s legitimacy. Sadly, some of the same tactics were later used by Bret Baier on Special Report.

Shaw began by suggesting that President Obama and/or his attorneys had shirked their duty by not showing up at a hearing:

Every seat in this Fulton County courtroom was taken this morning except the one where President Obama’s lawyers were supposed to be sitting. They called this hearing baseless and didn’t see the need to show up.

Saying that the lawyers “were supposed to be sitting” in the hearing but they “didn’t see the need to show up” implied there was a need they just didn’t see.

The report then showed a clip of a man arguing, “He (presumably Obama) is not Constitutionally qualified to hold office. It is not a statement about his ability. It’s a statement about his Constitutional qualifications.”

Shaw continued,

The arguments, for three different lawsuits, were made before Fulton County administrative judge Michael Malihi and the main point behind each one is the claim that President Obama’s father was never a U.S. citizen. These attorneys then argued, based on court precedent, that a person can only be a natural-born citizen if both parents were citizens.

Shaw failed to mention that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Instead, he presented the issue as a he said/she said:

In a letter to Georgia Secretary of State, an Obama lawyers wrote, “The State of Hawaii produced official records documenting birth there; the President made documents available to the general public by placing them on his website.”

Then Shaw immediately cast doubt on that:

But witnesses testified that birth certificate and even the President’s Social Security number are fakes.

Somehow Shaw didn’t think it worthwhile to point out that impartial, fact-checking experts have carefully examined the birth certificate and ruled it valid. Nor that the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a previous case challenging Obama’s birth certificate.

Nor did Shaw bother to mention the mountain of evidence discrediting Taitz, including the fact that she was previously fined $20,000 by a federal court (which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block) for filing frivolous lawsuits challenging Obama’s citizenship.

Instead, Taitz was shown saying,

Anybody who has half a brain in his head listening to what all of those witnesses were saying can see that there is a reasonable doubt. You’ve seen an immigration officer saying, “This man is using a social security number from the state of Connecticut where he never resided.”

”Objective” Bret Baier made the same omissions and similar insinuations during his brief report on the hearing during the “Grapevine” segment of Special Report. Baier avoided using the words "birther" or "birth certificate" and instead described the lawsuit in far more credible-sounding terms.

President Obama and his attorney were both no-shows today in an Atlanta courtroom challengingPresident Obama’s citizenship and qualification to be on the March primary ballot there. After listening to hours ofdetailed arguments, the judge did not set a timeline for ruling. The president’s attorney had written to the Georgia Secretary of State imploring him to “bring an end to this baseless, costly and unproductive hearing.” The Secretary of State responded with a warning that if they failed to appear, “you do so at your own peril.” The Obama campaign has said, “As courts around the country have ruled time and again, these claims have no merit.”

As Baier spoke a graphic showed a face of Obama with “NO RULING” written underneath, as if the issue were up in the air.

Showing 71 reactions

Yakster, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
As I said 3 days ago….the one thing that I like about Sammy is that he’s OLD. And he’s proven to all of us how insignificant and deluded he is. His hatred will pass with him. And that is a fact that even he cannot dispute.

Ok, ya’ll- it’s been fun exposing Sewell as a bigoted, thin-skinned, pot-liking quack of a birther that’s just here to prove he can dish it out but can’t take it back… but I honestly can’t waste anymore time with him. It’s getting me behind.

I told his friend Anderson to post here about his friend’s behavior if he chooses to get involved, if he doesn’t… oh well. I’m sure Sewell will lie about that posting something on his behalf. Probably refraining to how he’s such a great guy, despite that he’s been nothing but an unhinged dipshit to us.

2) If you found that I like pot on my FB page you will indeed get credit for being a good researcher.

3) Wrong again! Just how incompetent can one person be. You accessed a list of people who connected to me on face book. It isnât an interest of mine. It is a link.

4) This isnât my interest. It is an interest of someone I donât know.

So… I find that you have marijuana as an activity and interest and your response is to claim that it’s somebody else’s, while refusing to delete it?

This isn’t you being caught with a joint, dumbass- this is you being caught with Marijuana as an interest on facebook. In your personal list of activities and interests. Even if someone else put it in there for you… why haven’t you deleted it yet? You still have it up.

At least when I proved you were lying when you said you don’t support or affiliate yourself with Taitz (I proved that you at least support her enough to post support and advice on both her site and yours), you were smart enough to gloss over that.

Guess what, birthers? Even if you are correct (and you are not), America doesn’t care! We voted in President Obama. Everybody in a position of authority thinks he’s qualified to be president. Americans think he’s qualified to be president. The courts have consistently thrown out every birther lawsuit and called them a waste of time. It just so happens I know many certified forensic document examiners and NONE OF THEM question the birth certificate.

Now, if you want to sit around saying otherwise, that’s fine with me. But no matter how smart you are, YOUARENEVERGOING TO GETANYWHEREWITHTHISBECAUSEAMERICANSHAVEALREADYSPOKEN ON THESUBJECT.

But go ahead, and keep talking about all the reasons you are right and nearly everyone else in America is wrong. You’ve already bored me to death. If my readers want to keep arguing with you, that’s their prerogative. Just remember, nobody is interested in your “evidence” other than your own little circle.

If you’re gonna lie, at least delete that from the list first. BTW, my last order of business for tonight is putting the screen cap on FB. I’ll put it on a photo site to link here later. Or a second hound can save it and link you. Be sure to run an ELA on it before you call it a fake. All I did was circle that one word.

Then you can apologize and explain how I was lying when I said you like it on FB. While you’re at it… prove I wasn’t using that find to snark on you, oh thin-skinned one.

For someone supposedly so spotless, we sure are finding out a lot about you, Sam. Maybe if you hadn’t done something insanely stupid as give us how to find all this out… I see you posted on your FB page that you like Marijuana. That explains a lot.

Aria…excellent work!
And this sick bastard claims to work with gifted children?
Someone needs to look into this guy…seriously.
I’m also wondering how many of the parents of these ‘gifted’ children realize what a whacko they’re entrusting their children to?

Funny how Group 339 lists the people who got kicked out under CONTACTINFORMATION. It sheds a lot of light on how your chapter runs things.

BTW, the leader of the program, the guy who replaced you if you’re not lying yet again? HIs name is William Scott Anderson. I contacted him to ask about you- Let’s see if he answers. If he does and the story comes with a mugshot, guess what I’m posting next?

And you haven’t earned the right to know my real name. I’m still not sure you aren’t someone who’s made threats against me hijacking Sewell’s name.

Yakki, I donât recall seeing much of Orly Taitz on Fox. They seem to find her to be the wrong spokesperson to advance this nonsense. Which is why they given us âThe Donaldâ to be their messenger.

Once again, I have to use my break to point out that, for someone who claims to be an open book, Sewell sure is ducking the question.

You referred to us as an “experiment,” Sewell- nice how you can disclose that, but it’s suddenly crossing the line to ask you what the experiment was- you know, besides insulting us and thinking us getting offended proves something.

BTW- Incompetent research?

I searched your name on the actual MENSA sites- MENSA US didn’t turn you up:

And just because I was pissed about having to lose my break to reply to you this much earlier than I said I would, I googled your name against “idiot”- seems just about everyone who ever talked to you online sums you up with the terms idiot, moron, clueless reject, quack, sociopath, troll and (my personal favourite) braying jackass. Most of them are pretty sure it’s some hard-right troll impersonating the real Sewell.

I’m about to hit up the head of the Naples Gifted Child program about you. I’m pretty sure I’ll get an interesting story there… care to launch a pre-emptive defense?

I don’t believe for one second you are a genius. Putting aside the birther garbage, someone much less intelligent than you would have decided long ago to put this interaction behind them. Quite a few comments ago you said “this thread has run its course.”

Ok, quick detour back here while I take a break from my research assignment:

Sewell (assuming this is actually Sewell and not some clown who hijacked his name) has mentioned that we’re an “experiment” to him before he falsely claimed that no one has challenged his claims. I won’t be able to post here or on any of the other sites through Wednesday after this, but I’m interested in hearing him explain it to me when I have a moment to read.

After all, the person who pointed this guy out to me pointed out that our old “friend” from Iowa constantly claimed we were a “study” for him on his pre-2.0 blog entries… as well as a few times on therads where he lost the debate repeatedly. Or was questioned on whatever claim about himself he changed the subject to.

Oh, and don’t think I didn’t notice that you weren’t capable of explaining why the Region 10, United States and International MENSA sites can’t turn you up. Despite that you claim to be a 30 year member of the Gifted Child Program. Even if they don’t list volunteers, why aren’t you even listed in the directories as a member- current or former?

Linkedin said that Sewell is a Gifted Child Coordinatror for MENSA (aka an organization employee) in Naples, Florida. So why is it that the Florida, US and International MENSA sites all turn up bupkas on him?

No employee profiles, no employee records, no bio pages… Not even a mention that he’s a member of the Naples Area chapter.

Care to explain, Sammy? And keep in mind that the only reason you’re even getting this is because of Domenica finding that you actually had a membership at one point.

God bless Georgia Deputy Chief Judge Michael Malihi for exploring the merits of the charges that President Obama was not and is not eligable to have been instated as President of the United States. Had the press investigated Obama as they have veted all the Republican front runners in presidential primary, maybe Joe Biden would now be president. Instead of being forthwith , Obama has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep his shady ,little known, past hidden. Hopefully our next president who will have parents that did not hate America and what it stands for! Apparently Obama has time for golf and expensive vacations but he does not have time to appear at birther hearings. He and lawyer were no shows!

Sam, I trued to ask Mensa to reset your password again - figured you might want to choose a different one - “ImGenius” is just too obvious. Maybe try “ImHumble” - no one would ever guess that one. By the way, I’m in Canada. You might want to hire a lawyer with International credentials.